


Enchanting, Running, Flying

by little_dhampir



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, M/M, prompt: enchanting running flying, themerlinartsfest2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 19:19:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1910697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_dhampir/pseuds/little_dhampir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin has a bad day and Arthur knows how to make it better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enchanting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Merlin Arts Fest 2014. Read and enjoy! :)

There were days where everything seemed to go wrong. Merlin definitely had such a day today. First his alarm decided to die over night; this naturally led to Merlin waking up late and having to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off in order to make it to work on time. Arthur was still on his business trip, so Merlin had their flat to himself and therefore nobody to wake him up. He managed to hurt his toe in the shower, burn his toast and spill his tea before he even left the building.

Managing to leave the flat just barely on time, he found the lifts not working again. Merlin hated any kind of physical exercise, especially in the morning, and taking 5 sets of stairs definitely counted as exercise.

  
He managed to arrive at Uncle Gaius Tea, Herbs and Bookshop just a few minutes late and he was once again happy to work for his dear uncle. Actually these days Merlin was pretty much running the place because Gaius wasn’t that young anymore. Still, his uncle wasn’t ready to hand over his business to his only nephew, he loved the shop way too much to let go of it. Merlin didn’t mind, he had started working for his uncle while still in University and had loved it so much that he had decided to still do so after getting his degree.

  
“Morning Merlin,” Gaius raised his eyebrow, the only indication that he was slightly annoyed by Merlin’s lateness.

  
“Morning Uncle Gaius,” Merlin answered before starting to unpack the newly delivered books.

  
Sadly Merlin’s day didn’t get much better. He had some extremely annoying customers including an old friend of his uncle, who kept telling him how to do his job, and a teenage girl who thought they were a magic shop where she can find books and herbs to enchant one of her classmates. Merlin had to break it to her that love spells sadly only worked in fantasy movies.

  
By the time Merlin closed the shop, Gaius had left early claiming to have back pain even though Merlin was pretty sure he only left early to punish Merlin for being late, he was more than ready to head home. His couch and TV were waiting for him; sadly without Arthur, who wouldn't arrive home until tomorrow.

  
The first thing Merlin noticed when he came home, the lift was still not working, was the light coming from the living room. Looking around him he realized that there were indeed Arthur’s shoes standing next to his. He was so tired he hadn’t even seen them when slipping out of his converse. Frowning he entered the next room.

  
“I thought you were coming home tomorrow?” Merlin asked loudly into the general direction of their bedroom, where he thought Arthur may be at the moment. Then he saw the flowers on the table, along with freshly cooked food and wine, which only irritated him more, Arthur didn’t cook very often.

  
“Ok, what did you do?” Merlin still shouted, not having moved much further. “Did you sleep with someone on your business trip?”

  
Not that Merlin really thought Arthur would be unfaithful to him; all this romantic stuff just irritated him to no end. Finally Arthur emerged from the bedroom, having apparently changed out of his suit into a pair of jogging pants and a snug T-shirt.

  
“Can’t a man prepare a nice dinner for his boyfriend whom he hadn’t seen for a week? Why do you think I did something?”

  
“Because you never do randomly romantic stuff? Not that I mind that,” Merlin added before closing the distance to Arthur and kissing him. He really had missed Arthur in the week they were apart, even if it wasn’t the first business trip Arthur had taken and wouldn’t be the last.

  
“Welcome home,” Merlin murmured between kisses just as Arthur guided Merlin to the table. They both parted and sat down. Only now Merlin realized the wine was his favourite, meaning Arthur took the time to drive all across town to get it.

  
“Ok, tell me. What’s up with the cooking? And the flowers?” Merlin asked between bites of his spaghetti, the only thing Arthur could cook.

  
“Can’t we just have a nice, romantic dinner without me having an agenda?” Arthur looked up from his plate and directly at Merlin.

  
“No,” Merlin stayed stubborn demanding an answer.

  
“Fine!” Arthur sighed. “But you are ruining my plans, so don’t complain about it not being perfect.”

  
Without another word he produced a small jewellery box out of thin air which he handed over to Merlin. Confused Merlin opened it and just starred. In there were two identical silver rings, one slightly bigger than the other. Merlin opened his mouth but before he could say anything Arthur stood up and went down on his knees in front of Merlin.

  
“Merlin Emrys, you completely enchanted me, made me feel love like I never had before. Would you do me the honour of becoming my husband?”

  
Merlin didn’t answer, only fell on his knees to kiss Arthur and hug him as close as he could.

  
“Is that a yes?” Arthur smiled into Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin could only nod; afraid he would burst into happy tears like the girl Arthur always accused him of being if he so much as said a word. This seemed to be enough for Arthur; after hugging and kissing each other a few minutes they managed to get back to their dinner. The food was cold but neither one minded.

  
“I love you,” Merlin said, hours later after they were finished celebrating their engagement and were lying next to each other in their bed, both sweaty and sticky but not caring.

  
“I know,” Arthur said before pressing a kiss to Merlin’s ear. “I hope you still do once I tell you that you are going to run the half marathon with me.”


	2. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin is running a half marathon thanks to Arthur.

Merlin cursed Arthur in his mind for what felt like the hundredth time. What was he thinking when he agreed to run the half marathon with Arthur? And what the hell was Arthur thinking when he asked Merlin to run it together? They both knew how much Merlin hated running. He only agreed to this stupid idea because he loved Arthur more than he detested any kind of physical exercise. Except sex, which Arthur was so not getting any time in the near future because well, firstly, Merlin was angry with him and secondly, Merlin really didn’t think he would be able to move a single muscle after finishing his run.

He had lost Arthur only minutes after the start or rather Arthur had lost him. He was a way better runner than Merlin and it had only taken him about 5 minutes to get bored by Merlin’s speed. After a questioning look on his side and Merlin’s answering nod Arthur had taken off in his own speed and was now probably already finished. Merlin wouldn’t put it past him to actually be the first one at the finishing line, getting ogled by some of the people watching the run, while waiting all sweaty on Merlin to finish.

Well thank god he didn’t need to wait much longer. Merlin could already see the finishing line for himself. After calling Arthur a clotpole one last time in his mind, Merlin started to gain on speed for one last time and reached, only few minutes later, his destination.

“Water,” was all Merlin could say once he had reached a waiting Arthur.

After taking a few gulps of the refreshing cold Arthur had handed him he shot one look at Arthur.

“I hate you.”

He didn’t even glance at the two young women standing next to Arthur like he had predicted. He didn’t worry about that; he was sure of Arthur’s love. And if the fond look on Arthur’s face was anything to go by, he too didn’t care about the women standing next too him.

“You do not,” Arthur said smiling. “You love me; you wouldn’t have said yes to my marriage proposal if you didn’t.”

“Is it too late to say no?” Merlin asked jokingly while pushing away Arthur’s hand from his hair.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Arthur laughed. Only now did he remember the women standing next to him.

“Oh sorry, Merlin this is Vivian and Sophia, they are both daughters of my father’s business associates. Vivian, Sophia, this is my fiancé Merlin,” he grinned.

Merlin noted the slightly shocked look on their faces, one he had seen many times before when Arthur had introduced Merlin as his boyfriend. People never could believe that the heir to Pendragon Industries dated a regular next door guy.

“Nice to meet you,” Vivian told him with a fake smile. “We hope we will see you tonight,” Sophia added before both women said their goodbyes and left them alone?

“Tonight?” Merlin asked, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer.

“Yeah, I kind of forgotten to mention it, my father is having a party tonight, more like a business celebration, and we are required to go.”

The look on Arthur’s face told him that he did actually not forget to mention it; he just didn’t want Merlin to know about it earlier so Merlin wouldn’t be able to find an excuse for not going. Merlin contemplated being angry but looking at Arthur’s regretful face and his hand wearing their engagement ring he just couldn’t.

Once Arthur realized Merlin wasn’t angry he started smiling.

“You know what? Let’s get home, so we can get ready for tonight. We’ll take a shower and I can show you how much I appreciate you running with me.”

One look on Arthur’s face was enough for Merlin to forget about his no sex for Arthur decision. He took his fiancé's hand and started the way towards their car.


	3. Flying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur are at Uther's Party where Merlin tells the story how they first met.

The night was as boring as Merlin had thought it would be. A party at Uther’s basically meant wearing a suit, talking to business associates of Arthur’s father and drinking as much as possible to fight his boredom. While Merlin did like seeing Arthur in a suit he did not like wearing one himself. He always felt like a young boy wearing his father’s clothes.

Talking to Uther’s so called friends, who were all conservative and didn’t even try to hide their disdain at the sight of Merlin and Arthur together, didn’t exactly make the night more bearable. At least Elena, daughter of yet another business associate, looked as out of place as he felt. Ditching Arthur in the middle of one hell of a boring talk about the company, he headed over to her and spend the next few hours mostly at her side. In between Arthur stole him from Elena’s side to introduce him to some people but in the end he always ended up at Elena’s side.

“So how did you and Arthur meet?” Elena asked after ordering a new margarita at the bar. Merlin smiled, took a look at Arthur, who answered him with an apologetic one and started to tell.

* * *

 

**Three years earlier:**

“Excuse me; you are sitting on my seat.”

Merlin looked up from the magazine he was currently reading, only to find himself looking into a pair of blue eyes, which apparently were owned by the posh voice currently interrupting him in the middle of the article about the newest Hollywood diet. Not that he needed to read about that, he only needed something to distract him from the thoughts of his impending doom. He really didn’t like flying.

“Ahm, yes I know Sir, it’s just that my seat is the one next to the window and I really don’t want to sit there because…”

“I don’t care what you want. This is my seat; I paid for it, I want it. So get up!” The posh voice coming from the good looking blond guy said and started shooing Merlin around.

Merlin took a look at the window before standing up on weak knees and sitting down next to the seat he had occupied only a minute ago. Without another word blondie began putting his hand luggage away. Loosing his tie a bit he stopped looking so damn serious for a moment. Still the look on his handsome face spoke of arrogance.

Merlin didn’t spend much more time thinking about the handsome prat next to him because shortly after both men had buckled their seatbelts the plane started to roll. Only a few minutes left before they took off into the sky, Merlin felt himself starting to sweat and breathe heavily. His seat neighbour looked at him as if he was an annoying bug he wanted to crush.

“Sorry, flight fright.” Merlin didn’t even know why he was telling the stranger that.

A minute later the plane started to go faster and the man in the next seat threw him another look.

“You do realize you are squeezing my hand?” he asked calmly just as Merlin let out an embarrassing squeak when he felt the plane starting to fly.

The look on Merlin’s face must been one of complete horror because the stranger did not let go of Merlin’s hand and even smiled at him kindly which transformed his once arrogant face nicely.

“Why do you even fly when you are so afraid of it?”

Merlin answered. He felt himself calming a bit. He only regretted this decision a little bit now.

“I am Merlin,” he added for no particular reason. He just wanted to keep talking to the handsome blond man now that he didn’t seem to be that pratish attitude anymore.

“I am Arthur,” the man said. “And I am sorry for not letting you sit on my seat. I should have realized how afraid you were.”

“It’s alright; holding your hand is really helping.” Merlin blushed at his confession.

* * *

 

“And the rest is history,” Merlin finished his story just as Arthur arrived at his side once again. Merlin couldn’t resist pressing a quick kiss on Arthur’s lips.

“You two are so perfect together,” Elena told them.

Merlin couldn’t agree more.


End file.
